Bread maker

Delicious (we hope!) recipes from you the reader!

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Carole B.
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Joined: Fri Nov 25, 2005 3:36 pm
Location: Isle of Wight

My sons,(bless them),bought me a bread maker for Christmas,I've been on about buying one for years and now I intend to play.Does anyone have any tips or fav.recipes they can pass on?
Carole.
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John
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Location: West Glos

Hello Carole
Welcome to the fantastic world of breadmaking!
Using these machine is not quite like following a cake recipe where a bit of this and a guessed amount of that will still get you a good result in the end. These machines can be rather unforgiving. So here are a few tips which I hope will help you.
  • Follow the order for adding the ingredients to the pan given in the instruction book VERY carefully.
  • Weigh your ingredients VERY carefully - I've found that the only way to do this properly is to use some digital kitchen scales. The amounts of some ingredients such as the yeast, flour and water are critical.
  • Remove the loaf from the machine immediately it is done. Despite what the instruction book might say about being able to keep a loaf warm for an hour or so - it just doesn't work.
  • If you like a crusty loaf, pop the freshly cooked loaf into a hot oven (gas mk6) for 5-10 minutes. You'll have to do a bit of trial and error stuff on this one, it depends on your oven.
  • ALWAYS use good quality bread flours. I've found Marriage's (especially their 100% Canadian), Doves, Carrs and Matthews give really good results. I've had less success the well-known brand names and stores own name flours. Ready-made mixes are usually pretty poor as well. Look for high protein values on the labels.
  • Lurpak butter (low salt) or Trex are good as the fat part of the recipe.

Its probably best to start of with simple white and wholemeal loaves first. Once you're getting consistently good results with these then have a go with some different flours such as malted brown, quinoa, spelt or rye.

Good luck
Let me know if you get stuck for recipes and I'll try to help.
John

PS For these better quality flours and the more unusual ones you'll probably have to go to your local health food shop - though Carrs is in the supermarkets and Matthews is in our Coop.
PPS Don't be tempted to look inside the machine while its working as you will upset the temperature.
Kentish Ken

Congrats! I was the one who nagged for years in our house that we should get a breakmaker, so when we finally did I was told it was my job to keep feeding the thing. Which I do.
One tip: don't make granary bread. I wrecked the first paddle and bucket on our machine; I think it is now accepted that granary flour is too scratchy and ruins the non-stick finish. Country Grain flour is a good substitute.
We have a regular cycle of basic breads: light wholemeal, country grain, and walnut, plus white baps (what else with cold turkey?) and a longish list of fancier breads I make from time to time. If you'd like any, just say.
Allinsons have a web site with a library of recipes, plus you can sign up for e-mail newsletters with new recipes.
Bread Queen

I wouldn't want to be a killjoy (nor start a flame war similar to the "organic" flame war brewing elsewhere on the forum!) but what's wrong with making bread properly? I'm sure there are lots of people who genuinely believe that breadmakers save time but I'm unconvinced on that one - making my daily loaf takes about 15 minutes out of my day, as bread more or less makes itself while I am doing stuff elsewhere around the house, and one bowl is easier to clean than a breadmaker is! Having said that, someone gave me "The Ultimate Bread Machine Book" by Jennie Shapter some years ago, and it's full of interesting recipes. Since I make "manual" bread, it's just the recipes which interest me, but this book contains all the info which a machine owner might want to know. You could probably get a copy from amazon.co.uk
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Johnboy
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Location: NW Herefordshire

Hi Bread Queen,
I wholeheartedly agree with you. I have been making my own bread since 1975 and it takes no time at all to make the so called 'Hard Way'. I look upon bread machines as just something else to go wrong.
Yesterday I made some Sun Dried Tomato Bagettes and they where srummy! The thing is that most of the people who have bread machines have never ever tried to make bread the hard way so they are not able to really assess the machines. Which ever method you choose I do hope you all enjoy it. When the machine goes wrong please try the old way it may save you hefty repair bills. (tounge in cheek comment!)
There is nothing better than good wholesome home made bread. To me one of life's luxuries.
JB.
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Arnie
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Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2005 3:34 pm
Location: Liverpool Merseyside

Hi Johnboy,
Sorry but this has nothing to do with bread making,can you please recommend a good variety or varieties of Tomato suitable for sundrying.

Thank you

Kevin

And a happy New Year
Angi
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Posts: 168
Joined: Tue Nov 22, 2005 3:41 pm
Location: Southsea

I used to make my bread the old fashioned way but due to disability I find the kneading too much for my flimsy hands! My breadmaker allows me to enjoy fresh baked bread without the aching wrists. My corn and chilli bread is the current fave. Great with stew.
Carole B.
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Posts: 379
Joined: Fri Nov 25, 2005 3:36 pm
Location: Isle of Wight

Thanks for all the tips people,I have tried making bread the manual way and I just ended up with a lot of doorstops!I tried lots of different recipes but just couldn't get it right,probably why my sons bought the breadmaker!Plus the fact we do need rather a lot of bread with 6 of us.I have tried the breadmaker out over the last couple of days and I'm pleased with the results,I've tried an ordinary white and a wholemeal and set it overnight for a french bake loaf which was ready when I came down at 6.30 this morning,the smell was lovely and so was the bread,smashing crust.I note the comment about the Granary flour,I will avoid it.
We have a local flour mill here on the Island and I shall give some of their flours a try and see what others I can find.I'm having fun with it at any rate.
Thanks again,
Carole.
Gill - Guest

Apart from the usual favourites I use mine for mixing dough some white and some brown make into small breadcakes then bake in a loose bottom cake tin to give a large bread cake offering both colours give me a shout if you want instructions I have arthrhitis in my hands so the kneading is tto painful for me!
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John
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Joined: Fri Nov 25, 2005 10:52 am
Location: West Glos

Hello Gill
That sounds like a good idea!
Can you let us have your method please.

I use the dough programme on my machine for making rolls and this works well. I split the dough from 500g of strong flour into 12 equal portions (70g each) and roll to a ball and place them approx 3in apart on a baking tray. After the second rise they get 20 mins at gas mk6. They're loads better than the shop ones. Shop rolls at 15 - 20p each are an extremely expensive way of buying bread to my mind.

John
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John
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Joined: Fri Nov 25, 2005 10:52 am
Location: West Glos

Hello again
Forgot to say that they freeze well also.

John

Oops should have used 'edit' on my last posting.
Molly
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Joined: Sat Dec 24, 2005 2:42 pm
Location: Shropshire

I sympathise with those who can't knead, as I have arthritis in both thumbs! However, I find that kneading in the bowl is easier than on the worktop, and I don't knead for longer than about 2 minutes anyway (in my experience, it's the rising which makes good bread rather than laborious kneading - sorry to any Elizabeth David fans out there, but 20 years of bread-making experience tells me she was wrong on that one! :wink: ). Try using "easy mix" yeast which is added to the flour before adding the liquid - I've found it makes quite a difference. And rise the dough twice - once in the bowl, then again in the tin. Then, when you feel the loaf is cooked sufficiently, remove it from the tin and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes. Should put paid to the doorstop syndrome, but if not I'll gladly post my basic recipe.
Some days you're the dog, some days you're the fence post
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Jenny Green
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Location: East Midlands

Apologies to the advocates of home bread making, but Molly's post illustrates how much easier a bread maker is. Just put the ingredients in, press the button and you're done.
I sometimes programme mine to start early in the morning, giving me freshly baked bread for breakfast.
Delish!!
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richard p
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Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 1:22 pm
Location: Somerset UK

we have a morpy richards breadmaker, started using the wholemeal recipe in the instruction book , which has evolved into, 3 soupspoons of olive oil poured over the spindle, then put the paddle on, the oil on the spindle stops the paddle sticking to it, two measuring cups (supplied with the machine) of water, a pinch of salt, teaspoon of sugar, 5 cups of wholemeal flour (strong or breadmaking or plain, usually organic) and a sachet of dried yeast , set to the right program , set the timmer for seven am and go to bed, its quicker to do than type it. on occasions a handful of dried tomatoes or dried fruit goes in. we did try flour from a local watermill but it resulted in bricks so went back to the shop bought stuff. once put self raising flour in by accident it lifted the lid ! wont do that again. occasionally substitute a cup of porage oats for one of flour.
i dont worry about precise measuring of ingredients, if one cup of flour is a bit heaped amd the next isn't quite full is close enough in my experience
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Tigger
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More tips - If you're trying to cut back on your salt intake, most bread (whether made in a machine or by hand) will rise with little or no salt. Try replacing the sugar with honey, but use less. Also - if you find wholemeal bread too dense, replace a third of the wholemeal flour with a good quality strong white flour and it will make a much lighter loaf.
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